Is It Really a Wonderful Life ?
Dear Readers,
It’s been awhile - still writing the next Pair of Normal Girls story (to be honest, the working title is changing), and picked up two new projects as well. Between this and taking some holiday time off, things have been slow to churn out the potboilers for our audience.
Over the holiday, we took in the normal movies - and something struck me as odd as I watched Jimmy Stewart fumbling around the town of Pottersville in the American classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. There are a few articles (like this one by Horror Homeroom) that point out that this is a horror movie. Bottomline, the classic argument is that the movie demonstrates that George Bailey is a man of integrity, devoted to his friends and family, righteous and kind. His decisions matter, and the subsequent loss of control over his “existence” caused bad things to happen to his fellow man resulting in the realization that he matters - and the possibility of not being able to go back to the way things were (via divine intervention) crashes down on him.
But I don’t think that is the true horror of the film.
I think the true horror is in the way the movie depicts that his decisions are really not his own because, truly, I think George is a weak character.
Aside from his saving his brother’s life at a young age (at considerable risk), every decision he makes is questionable at best, and is the result of being pushed by an outside force to comply.
Relationship with Mary - She early on introduces to the audience that she is chasing after George. Later, when Violet Bick shows her intentions , it’s Mary who makes an open play for George - dispite the age difference (she’s still in high school). George’s mother and brother push George into the relationship, with Mary’s disapproving mother further driving the two together. Although, it would be interesting to know about those “loans” George had been giving Violet…for what purpose ?
This further extends to their choice of residence - Mary had wanted to live in an abandoned house (they spend their honeymoon there) , whichwas considerably dilapidated. Whatever funds they had coming in was to make the house more livable. Mary was the ultimate decision authority here.
Relationship with the Building and Loan (and town) - George’s father owned the Building and Loan, and George is bullied into taking on the business by the board of directors based on sentiment that he take his deceased father’s place (despite not having experience). Under George, the town takes the downtrodden and provides loans for building homes, under considerable risk - to the point that he loses money when the bank calls on all the loans due to be further bullied by townsfolk to get their investments back (some at a discount). Potter, the antagoinst, had known that George would pay out of pocket and played upon this weakness - really, the only thing that saved George was the decisions of others not to take out their full amounts.
I’ll further suggest that the questionable placement of George’s uncle Billy, who is forgetful to a fault - not someone you want handling money, is continually placed in a position of trust. Truthfully, the only thing cool about Billy is that he has a pet raven, Jimmy. In any case, Bily’s employment seems to be out of George’s hands even though he screws things up and leads to the picture’s denounment.
Relationship with family. George forgoes his planned trip and college (he had wanted for years to get out of the town) to take on the Building and Loan and instead provide his college money to his brother, Harry. As the oldest child, it was his societal duty to take care of his mother after his father’s death. Instead of staying and helping out, Harry ends up leaving (being a WW2 pilot), and only comes back once he is married, with the promise of a new job, and there is no way George now can depend on Harry to support their mother locally.
Suicide. Even George’s attempt at suicide is out of his hands, as the “divine” , angels Joseph and Senior Angel Franklin, make the decision to interfere. It is Angel 2nd Class Clarence who ultimately makes the jump to cause George to save his life as he did earlier for Harry when they were kids. Ultimately, George’s decision is based on a push from Clarence - the Angel could have jumped in should George had made an actual decision - but in decision Clarence mentions “you were thinking about it.”
It’s this latter point that most affects my understanding of the film, and (especially in light of the vilified Velma cartoon , or the pretty popular Wednesday) makes me question - who is this movie for ? When it really comes down to it, much of the illusion of George’s control comes from the Catholic belief system of “free will”, but most of his choices are not really, but more of a construct of “predestination” as provided by other Christian religions - many of which have no hierarchy of angels. I realize at the time that most of the country probably was of the Catholic faith, since the decline or change in churchgoers occurred roughly with the sexual revolution in the 1960s. It just seems a bit off, not as off as Velma - but maybe as off as Wedensday’s episode #4, “Woe What a Night”, where the characters are at a dance and Enid (played by ~18 year old Emma Myers (at the time)) who is, basically, playing a high school student, conducts a trope of the oral sex joke - we see her kneeling before her date, cleaning up spilled punch, when her love interest walks up and she pops up to “what are you doing ?” I mean, who is this for ?
Don’t get me wrong - Wedensday is a good entry-level horror (comedy) show, and is worth your time. If nothing else, just to hear the Cramps’ Goo Goo Muck; much thanks to Tim Burton for re-lighting my interest in psychobilly music. In the end, though, has Hollywood always been this blind to marketing ?
When the sun goes down and the moon comes up
I turn into a teenage goo goo muck
Yeah, I cruise through the city and I roam the streets
Looking for something that is nice to eat, hm
You better duck when I show up
The goo goo muck
I'm the night headhunter looking for some head
With a way out body underneath that head, oh
Yeah, I'll get you baby with a little luck
'Cause I'm teenage tiger and a goo goo muck
You better duck when I show up
The goo goo muck, prrrow
Yeah, the city is a jungle and I'm a beast, haha
Ha, I'm a teenage tiger looking for a feast, ouh
Yeah, I want the most but I'll take the least
'Cause I'm a goo goo muck tiger and a teenage beast, yeah
You better duck when I show up
The goo goo muck, prrrow
The goo goo muck
-S
